By IANS
New Delhi : Millions of people in and around the national capital continued to shiver Friday and were seen putting on layers of woollens to ward of the chilling weather. Not holding out any hope of respite, weatherman said chilling nights area ahead.
“The winter is very much in Delhi and will remain so at least till the third week of February,” said S.C. Bhan, director India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“The snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh is really making life difficult here. It’s not Delhi alone, the entire north India is shivering in cold due to it,” Bhan told IANS.
He, however, said that the snowfall in these hilly states is likely to stop Friday night. “But don’t expect warm days tomorrow onwards.”
“After the snowfall, the north-western wind will bring chill to the capital and the night temperature in the capital is expected to hover around four to five degrees Celsius in the coming days,” Bhan said.
The minimum temperature Friday was 9 degrees Celsius, much above 6.4 degrees Celsius Thursday.
IMD officials said the minimum temperature Saturday would be around six degrees and Sunday is expected to see a fall to four degrees Celsius. Saturday will be cloudy as well, weatherman added.
The capital city has been in the grip of severe cold weather right from the New Year’s day of 2008. While Jan 1 recorded 2.6 degrees Celsius, the next day it was just 1.9 degrees Celsius.
Residents in the capital said that the cold wave is really affecting their normal life. “The other day news reports said that cold wave condition is over in Delhi but it is not so,” said Rajesh Chaturvedi, a student.
“Who is saying that the winter is over? You can see me and many people like me, who are still covered under at least two layers of woollens,” said Manashwini Mitra, a call centre employee in the capital.